Books
Historic Mechanics' Institute looks like a library, feels like a library with so much to offer with its fine collection and provoking programming. This gem is not to be missed. - Peter Wiley, Chairman Emeritus, John Wiley and Sons
Mechanics' Institute Library has over 100,000 circulating materials in its collection and continues to grow. We serve the general reader with a wide, diverse, and eclectic collection covering a vast array of subjects and interests.
See a selection of our collection below and visit our Catalog to explore even more.
Autumn Reads - Fiction
Novels that take place in Autumn, are about Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
Something wicked this way comes
By Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012.
Books that take place in Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
The catcher in the rye
By Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), 1919-2010.
Books that take place in Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
Olive, again
By Strout, Elizabeth, author.
Olive Kitteridge has returned, as indomitable as ever, this time as a person getting older, navigating her next decade as she comes to terms with the changes--sometimes welcome, sometimes not--in her own life. Here is Olive, strangely content in her second marriage, still in an evolving relationship with her son and his family, encountering a cast of memorable characters in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine. Whether it's a young girl coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth at a baby shower, or a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, the irascible Olive improbably touches the lives of others.
Wuthering Heights
By Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848.
Books that take place in Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
A night in the lonesome October
By Zelazny, Roger, author.
Books that take place in Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
Practical magic
By Hoffman, Alice.
Orphaned at an early age, Gillian and Sally Owen are raised by an aunt who deals in sorcery. The girls long for the normal life and leave home as soon as they can. Years later tragedy strikes and it is then they realize that magic is their gift, not their affliction. By the author of Illumination Night.
Rebecca
By Du Maurier, Daphne, 1907-1989, author.
Books that take place in Autumn, or just feel like Autumn.
Staff Picks
Books, music, and movie recommendations from Mechanics' staff
Babel : or the necessity of violence : an arcane history of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
By Kuang, R. F. (Rebecca F.), author.
Picked by Andy, Program Director
A line in the world : a year on the North Sea coast
By Nors, Dorthe, 1970- author.
Picked by Justin, Library Intern
New Fiction
See more new fiction in our catalog
Clown town
By Herron, Mick, author
"The ninth book in the series behind Slow Horses, an Apple original series now streaming on Apple TV+. "Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren't much better than clowns." Or so David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they've fallen on hard times-as River Cartwright is about to learn the hard way. David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks' College in Oxford, and now it turns out that one of the books has gone missing. Or perhaps it never existed. Now River, once a "slow horse" of Slough House, MI5's outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, has some time to kill while awaiting medical clearance to return to work, and investigating the secrets of his grandfather's library seems a harmless activity. But nothing involving the slow horses ever stays harmless for long. Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles revealed the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme in which the would-be blackmailer is a solution to a much newer problem. All she needs is the right dupe to get caught holding the bag. Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, does not want any of his joes involved. When Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they're his clowns. And if they don't all make it home, there'll be a reckoning"-- Provided by publisher.
The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny : a novel
By Desai, Kiran, 1971- author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
"When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists"-- Provided by publisher.
Vera, or faith : a novel
By Shteyngart, Gary, 1972- author.
"The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world"--
The secret of secrets : a novel
By Brown, Dan, 1964- author.
"Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon--a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague's most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind."--Dust jacket flap.
Katabasis : a novel
By Kuang, R. F. (Rebecca F.), author.
"Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she's going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams.... Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don't even like. But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn't always the answer, and there's something in Alice and Peter's past that could forge them into the perfect allies...or lead to their doom"--
The man who died seven times
By Nishizawa, Yasuhiko, 1960 December 25- author.
"In the middle of the family New Year's gathering at his home, Grandfather Fuchigami is murdered. But not for the last time. For his grandson, Hisataro, has fallen into a mysterious time-loop, in which he must relive the same day again and again. Every morning after his grandfather's death, Hisataro wakes up with a chance to find the culprit and prevent the murder. But day after day he fails, despite stumbling across clues aplenty in the shape of secret plots, illicit love affairs and jealous rivalries. With an extremely large inheritance up for grabs, everyone is a suspect -- and Hisataro is beginning to wish he could leave this day behind"--
Mendell Station : a novel
By Hwang, J. B. author.
"A tender debut that follows a woman who, after her best friend's death, loses her faith and quits her job to join the postal service, quickly becoming an 'essential worker' as the city shuts down. It's January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God--in everything, really--follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring. While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other's difficult families. Mendell Station depicts one woman's deliverance through the peculiar rhythms of work, and the beauty found in small details and gestures, those quotidian labors of love." --Amazon.
My friends : a novel
By Backman, Fredrik, 1981- author.
"Most people don't even notice them-three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it's just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There's Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there's the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa's care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting's birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don't always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art"--
What we can know : a novel
By McEwan, Ian, author.
2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife's birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, 'A Corona for Vivien'. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery. 2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what
New Non-fiction
Mother Mary comes to me
By Roy, Arundhati, author.
Publisher Annotation: Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.” “Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today. With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.
Replaceable you : adventures in human anatomy
By Roach, Mary, author.
Publisher Annotation: The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available―sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet? In Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Can an intestine provide a workable substitute for a vagina? Roach dives in with her characteristic verve and infectious wit. Her travels take her to the OR at a legendary burn unit in Boston, a “superclean” xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell “hair nursery” in the San Diego tech hub. She talks with researchers and surgeons, amputees and ostomates, printers of kidneys and designers of wearable organs. She spends time in a working iron lung from the 1950s, stays up all night with recovery techs as they disassemble and reassemble a tissue donor, and travels across Mongolia with the cataract surgeons of Orbis International.
The wine bible
By MacNeil, Karen, 1954- author.
Discusses the history of wine, grape varieties, wine-making techniques, vintages, and more.
Dark renaissance : the dangerous times and fatal genius of Shakespeare's greatest rival
By Greenblatt, Stephen, 1943- author.
The story of how Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's greatest rival, leveraged his classical education to ignite an explosion of English literature, nourished the literary talent of Shakespeare and challenged societal norms with his transgressive genius.
Such great heights : the complete cultural history of the indie rock explosion
By DeVille, Chris, author.
"The definitive history of 21st century indie rock-from Iron & Wine and Death Cab for Cutie to Phoebe Bridgers and St. Vincent-and how the genre shifted the musical landscape and shaped a generation. Maybe you caught a few exhilarating seconds of "Teen Age Riot" on a nearby college radio station while scanning the FM dial in your parents' car. Maybe your friend invited you to a shabby local rock club and you ended up having a religious experience with Neutral Milk Hotel. Perhaps you were scandalized and tantalized upon sneaking Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville from an older sibling's CD collection, or you vowed to download every Radiohead song you could find on Limewire because they were the favorite band of the guy you had a major crush on. However you found your way into indie rock, once you were a listener, it felt like being part of a secret club of people who had discovered something special, something secret, something superior. In Such Great Heights, music journalist Chris DeVille brilliantly captures this cultural moment, from the early aughts and the height of indie rock, until the 2010s as streaming rocks the industry and changes music forever. DeVille covers the gamut of bands-like Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, LCD Soundsystem, Haim, Pavement, and Imogen Heap-and in the vein of Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties, touches on staggering pop culture moments like sharing music recommendations via AOL Instant Messenger and the life-changing OC soundtrack. Nerdy, fun, and a time machine for millennials, Such Great Heights is about how subculture becomes pop culture, how capitalism consumes what's "cool," about who gets to define what's hip and how, and how an "underground" genre shaped our lives"--
The genius myth : a curious history of a dangerous idea
By Lewis, Helen, 1983- author.
"From acclaimed Atlantic staff writer and host of BBC's podcast "The New Gurus" Helen Lewis comes a timely and provocative interrogation of the myth of genius, exploring the surprising inventions, inspirations and distortions by which some lives are elevated to 'greatness' - and others are not. You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate. In The Genius Myth, Helen Lewis unearths how this one word has shaped (and distorted) our ideas of success and achievement. Ultimately, argues Lewis, the modern idea of genius--a single preternaturally gifted individual, usually white and male, exempt from social niceties and sometimes even the law--has run its course. Braiding deep research with her signature wit and lightness, Lewis dissects past and present models of genius in the West, and reveals a far deeper and more interesting picture of human creativity than conventional wisdom allows. She uncovers a battalion of overlooked wives and collaborators. She asks whether most inventions are inevitable. She wonders if the Beatles would succeed today. And she confronts the vexing puzzle of Elon Musk, the tech disrupter who fancies himself as an ubermensch. Smart, funny, and provocative, The Genius Myth will challenge your assumptions about creativity, productivity, and innovation--and forever alter your mental image of the so-called "genius."" --
Tonight in Jungleland : the making of Born to Run
By Carlin, Peter Ames, author.
"A fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the making of Bruce Springsteen's ground-breaking album, Born to Run--one of the most iconic records in rock history--Tonight in Jungleland combines lush music writing with unprecedented inside access to Springsteen, his bandmates, and the full story behind every song... and coincides with the album's 50th anniversary in August 2025. From the opening piano notes of "Thunder Road," to the final outro of "Jungleland"--with American anthems like "Born to Run" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" in between--Bruce Springsteen's seminal album, Born to Run, established Springsteen as a creative force in rock and roll. With his back against the wall, he wrote what has been hailed as a perfect album, a defining moment, and a roadmap for what would become a legendary career. Peter Ames Carlin, whose bestselling biography, Bruce, gave him rare access to Springsteen's inner circle, now returns with the full story of the making of this epic album. Released in August, 1975, Born to Run now celebrates its 50th anniversary. Carlin reveals a treasure trove of untold stories, detailing the writing and recording of every song, as well as the intense and at times tortuous process that mimicked the fault lines in Springsteen's psyche and career, even as it revealed the depth of his vision. A must-read for any music fan, Tonight in Jungleland takes us inside a hallowed creative process and lets us experience history"--
Wild for Austen : a rebellious, subversive, and untamed Jane
By Looser, Devoney, 1967- author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
"Incisive, funny, and deeply-researched insights into the life, writing, and legacy of Jane Austen, by the preeminent scholar Devoney Looser. Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we've given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years. All six of Austen's completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen's juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen's relationship to the abolitionist movement and women's suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen's works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction. Written with warmth, humor, and remarkable details never before published, Wild for Austen is the ultimate tribute to Jane Austen"-- Provided by publisher.
Coming up short : a memoir of my America
By Reich, Robert B., author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
"From political economist, cabinet member, beloved professor, media presence, and bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, a deeply-felt, compelling memoir of growing up in a baby-boom America that made progress in certain areas, fell short in so many important ways, and still has lots of work to do. A thought-provoking, principled, clear-eyed chronicle of the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today-with irresponsible economic bullies and corporations with immense wealth and lobbying power on top, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country. Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future-that went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height--4'11" as an adult-set him on a determined path to spend his life f
Project mind control : Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the tragedy of MKULTRA
By Lisle, John (Historian), author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
Tyranny of the minority : why American democracy reached the breaking point
By Levitsky, Steven, author. aut
The club : where American women artists found refuge in Belle Époque Paris
By Dasal, Jennifer, 1980- author.
Cryptic : from Voynich to the Angel Diaries, the story of the world's mysterious manuscripts
By Shaw, Garry J., author.